Keratoconus and Corneal Transplant
Keratoconus is a disease of the cornea which can result in blurry vision and ghost images.
A small percentage of people with Keratoconus may need a Corneal Transplant.
Here's more about why you might need it and what it means.
If you have Keratoconus then the front transparent surface of your eye will have become thinner with the result that your cornea distends and droops into an irregular 'cone' shape.
This distortion results in your eye being unable to create a single focus point on your retina (the back part of your eye).
These multiple focus points result in blurry vision and sometimes a kind of double, treble or even quadruple images which s called 'ghosting'.
Somewhere between one in five hundred and one in two thousand people will be diagnosed with Keratoconus.
For most of them some form of contact lenses will be enough to correct their vision.
For a small group, normally less than ten percent of the people with the condition, the cornea will become so thin, so distorted and maybe too scarred, for contact lenses to work.
In these cases a Corneal Transplant may be required.
There are two basic types of Corneal transplant.
This article is going to focus on the Full Thickness Transplant or Penetrating Keratoplasty.
The normal human Cornea is about 0.
5 mm thick.
Obviously if you have Keratoconus it will be thinner than that.
In the full thickness transplant an area about 7 mm in diameter and the entire thickness of the cornea is removed and replaced with material from a donor eye.
The replacement cornea is stitched on using a number of different types of sutures placed at strategic positions around the transplant.
The operation is most commonly done under a general anaesthetic and sometimes involves an overnight stay in hospital.
Post operation you will normally have to apply drops into your eye for several weeks, or maybe months.
These drops normally comprise an antibiotic to ward off any infection and a steroid based drop to help prevent rejection.
Regular check ups are normally carried out in the weeks immediately post operation and, at some point, the surgeon may decide to selectively remove some stitches to help to shape your eye.
In many cases the stitches say in for a number of months before any are removed, but if necessary they may be removed sooner.
It can take twelve to eighteen months for the cornea to reach the best shape it can.
It is often the case that contact lenses may still be needed to correct your vision.
These transplants can seem scary but they have an excellent success rate and many people get a significant improvement in uncorrected and corrected vision afterwards.
Rejection rates are pretty low and can normally be treated with eye drops if they do occur.
Nevertheless it's often best not to rush into a transplant until other avenues have been exhausted.
This is simply for the reason that you can't "undo" a transplant, whereas you can take out contact lenses any time if they don;t give you the results that you want.
As always get the best advice from your medical specialist about the right treatment options for your specific case.
A small percentage of people with Keratoconus may need a Corneal Transplant.
Here's more about why you might need it and what it means.
If you have Keratoconus then the front transparent surface of your eye will have become thinner with the result that your cornea distends and droops into an irregular 'cone' shape.
This distortion results in your eye being unable to create a single focus point on your retina (the back part of your eye).
These multiple focus points result in blurry vision and sometimes a kind of double, treble or even quadruple images which s called 'ghosting'.
Somewhere between one in five hundred and one in two thousand people will be diagnosed with Keratoconus.
For most of them some form of contact lenses will be enough to correct their vision.
For a small group, normally less than ten percent of the people with the condition, the cornea will become so thin, so distorted and maybe too scarred, for contact lenses to work.
In these cases a Corneal Transplant may be required.
There are two basic types of Corneal transplant.
This article is going to focus on the Full Thickness Transplant or Penetrating Keratoplasty.
The normal human Cornea is about 0.
5 mm thick.
Obviously if you have Keratoconus it will be thinner than that.
In the full thickness transplant an area about 7 mm in diameter and the entire thickness of the cornea is removed and replaced with material from a donor eye.
The replacement cornea is stitched on using a number of different types of sutures placed at strategic positions around the transplant.
The operation is most commonly done under a general anaesthetic and sometimes involves an overnight stay in hospital.
Post operation you will normally have to apply drops into your eye for several weeks, or maybe months.
These drops normally comprise an antibiotic to ward off any infection and a steroid based drop to help prevent rejection.
Regular check ups are normally carried out in the weeks immediately post operation and, at some point, the surgeon may decide to selectively remove some stitches to help to shape your eye.
In many cases the stitches say in for a number of months before any are removed, but if necessary they may be removed sooner.
It can take twelve to eighteen months for the cornea to reach the best shape it can.
It is often the case that contact lenses may still be needed to correct your vision.
These transplants can seem scary but they have an excellent success rate and many people get a significant improvement in uncorrected and corrected vision afterwards.
Rejection rates are pretty low and can normally be treated with eye drops if they do occur.
Nevertheless it's often best not to rush into a transplant until other avenues have been exhausted.
This is simply for the reason that you can't "undo" a transplant, whereas you can take out contact lenses any time if they don;t give you the results that you want.
As always get the best advice from your medical specialist about the right treatment options for your specific case.
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